For many years attempts have been made to use shotgun shells in guns designed for shooting bullets. Unfortunately, the barrels of such firearms are rifled and, as the shell passes down the barrel, the rifling causes the individual pellets to move in a helical path. When the pellets leave the muzzle of the gun, centrifugal action causes the pellets to move outwardly from the barrel axis. At any appreciable distance from the gun, the pellets have moved outwardly so far from the axis that the group is useless either for target shooting or for shooting small game. These and other difficulties experienced with the prior art devices have been obviated in a novel manner by the present invention.
It is, therefore, an outstanding object of the invention to provide a gun that may be used effectively with both bullets and shotgun shells.
Another object of this invention is the provision of a firearm having a rifled barrel that may be used for shooting shotgun shells without the pellets moving laterally of the barrel axis as they leave the gun.
A further object of the present invention is the provision of a rifled gun that gives a close pellet pattern when used with shotgun shells.
It is another object of the instant invention to provide a rifled handgun which can be used with birdshot and give a pattern small enough to knock down small game despite the small weight of pellet necessitated by even the largest caliber of bullet.
A still further object of the invention is the provision of a handgun which makes an excellent survival gun because of its ability to shoot both bullets and shotgun shells with accuracy.
With these and other objects in view, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the invention resides in the combination of parts set forth in the specification and covered by the claims appended hereto.